Hey, did you know that Stephen Hawking thought there is no God?

Which would be somewhat revealing if the late physicist and theoretical cosmologist Stephen Hawking was not one of the world's most famous atheists – and has spoken or written on the subject many times – the media has released the latest book from Hawking Brief answers to major questions contains the statement that there is no God.

CNN, FoxNews, Telegraph, CNET, Yahoo News and many tabloid publications all made headlines, citing a quote from the book in which Hawking wrote: "Do I have faith? We are all free to believe what we want, and I think the simplest explanation is that there is no God … Nobody created the universe and no one led our destiny. This leads me to a profound realization: there is probably no paradise and no life after death either. "

It's a strong opinion, certainly, but it's not new at all. As recently as 2008, Hawking was described as "non-religious in the usual sense" in that he considered the universe as governed first and foremost by the laws of physics. But at the release of his book in 2010 The great designHawking had decided to clearly write that fundamental laws such as gravitation wanted that there be "no need to invoke God to illuminate the blue paper and put the universe in motion." In 2014, he publicly described himself as atheist in an interview in El Mundo. , suggesting that religion is a form of superstition:

Before understanding science, it is natural to believe that God created the universe. But now, science offers a more convincing explanation. What I meant by "we would know the Spirit of God" is that we would know all that God would know, if there was a God, which did not exist. I am atheist.

So, this is not exactly new information. It would be much more surprising if Hawking converted to the faith in deathbed, as some articles claim on hoaxes earlier this year.

Although Hawking's religious beliefs (or, more precisely, their absence) are noteworthy, the new book also contains his undoubtedly more pressing concerns about the global threat posed by far-right populism to science and science. # 39; education. long-term threat to humanity posed by climate change and nuclear war.

Of course, Hawking being regularly inclined to pontificate apocalyptic scenarios in his later years, the book also contains passages with severe warnings about artificial intelligence and genetically modified "superhumans" that could trigger "political problems important with unimproved humans, who have won. " t be able to compete. Hawking rightly feared that genetic modification research would lead to a resurgence of the eugenic movement.)

Hawking's atheism can shake certain feathers in true believers, even though he has never been particularly militant like the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. However, with regard to scientific controversies, Hawking's career is rich in activities that have more to do with all-powerful physical forces than spiritual forces. For example, imagine that black holes destroy information, apparently violating the current understanding of quantum mechanics, or that the Higgs boson has never been found. When the research was published, placing the weight of the evidence against his position, Hawking conceded both bets.